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Spring Clean Your Data: How to know if your data needs cleansing

27th Mar 2018

How often does your business think about cleansing your customer databases?

With it being spring in the UK, it means 2 things for businesses:

1. It is time to think about spring cleaning your business data

2. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is almost in effect

Fortunately, both of these business worries can be helped using the same service… data cleansing.

Data cleansing is the process of adding, removing or editing data to ensure that the data you hold is accurate and up to date. When businesses are using dirty data they are potentially risking the reputation of their business as it can not only threaten their business relationships but it can lead to wasted efforts and a loss of potential business especially for marketers if they are not working with the correct contact information.

Similarly, with GDPR currently being the talk of the marketing industry, having dirty, non-verified data can make your business not GDPR compliant, which is, therefore, exposing your business to potentially thousands of pounds in fines.

To help you avoid the impact dirty data can have on your business we have put together 5 expert tips and tricks to let you know if your dirty data is telling you if it needs to be cleansed:

1. Is your data inconsistent?

If your data contains missing contact information or you are having issues with validity and accuracy, then this is most likely an indication that your data needs to be looked at by data cleansing professionals

2. Increasing numbers of mail returned or being listed as spam

If you are creating email marketing campaigns that keep being listed as spam or you keep receiving mail returned emails then this you data could be telling you it is out of date

3. Do you have confidence in your data?

When you purchased your data or if it is data that you have been sitting on for a long time, are you confident that it is verified or verifiable? If the answer is no to this question you should strongly consider cleansing this data in order to stay compliant for when GDPR comes into effect

4. Usability of the data

Is your set of data easily understandable? Is it the information on the database relevant to your day to day business and can you easily access it?

5. Value of your data

If your business is holding a set of data that is no longer needed or if it can potentially endanger people’s safety privacy, your business can be eligible for breaching GDPR when it comes into effect

However, it is important to note that data quality metrics can be different for everyone. For example, they can vary depending on your job role. For example, marketers would be more interested in email addresses, but data being used at a call centre would require and care more about valid telephone numbers.